In a dramatic sequence of events an Over Ground worker (OGW) was caught alive by the joint team of security forces while another Special Police Officer, who had earlier decamped with two AK rifles from a security camp two days ago, managed to flee after an initial exchange of fire with security forces in the Chadoora area of Budgam on Friday.
The entire sequence of events was caught on camera where a senior army officer supervising the operation on ground zero was seen repeatedly making an appeal to the OGW to surrender his weapon and walk towards the security personnel without fearing for his life.
In one of the videos which went viral on social media platforms the army officer was seen instructing his soldiers to serve water to an OGW and stay away from him so that he can feel comfortable and not threatened due to the presence of a large number of soldiers surrounding him.
In another video, the father of an OGW who was identified by the police as Jehangir Ahmad Bhat, was seen touching the feet of a senior officer and thanking them for saving the precious life of his son. Several other security personnel were seen patting the back of an OGW and congratulating his father over safe home coming of his son.
Sharing details of the incident, a Jammu and Kashmir police spokesman said, “On a specific input regarding the presence of deserted SPO who decamped with 02 AK 47 rifles two days ago along with his associate in Chadoora area of Budgam, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, 53RR and 181Bn CRPF in the said area”.
“As the joint team reached near the target location, the hiding deserted SPO alongwith his associate fired indiscriminately upon the joint search party which was retaliated by the joint team leading to a brief gunfight. During the ensuing gunfight, the SPO managed to escape from the spot however, his associate was captured alive. The captured associate has been identified as Jahangir Ahmad Bhat, a OGW and a notorious stone pelter”, the police spokesman said.
One of the AK 47 rifles decamped by the deserted SPO was recovered from his possession. IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar appreciated the police and security forces for showing maximum restraint by arresting the terrorist associate during the live encounter. He also appealed to the family of SPO Altaf to help police in bringing him back.
Inspector General of Police Kashmir range Vijay Kumar Friday also claimed to have busted the terror module responsible for recent strikes on the security forces in and around Srinagar city.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar IG Kashmir told reporters, “the police teams constituted to probe the terror strikes have arrested six terrorist associates who had provided shelter, transportation and also conducted recee of the security force deployments where the terror strikes were launched”.
The teams were also able to seize 06 different vehicles used to carry out these terror crime attacks, he added.
According to a police spokesman, “a series of attacks took place from 14th August 2020 till 5th October 2020 within the jurisdiction of Police Station Nowgam and
Chadoora which include attack on Police and SSB party at Gulshan Nagar Nowgam in which two personnel of JKP attained martyrdom & another was injured and 01 INSAS rifle was also snatched by the terrorists, attack on CRPF party of 117Bn at Kaisarmullah Chadoora in which one CRPF personnel attained martyrdom and his weapon was also snatched, attack on ROP party of CRPF 110Bn near
Taingan New Bypass in which 2 CRPF personnel attained martyrdom and 4 others were injured and attack on ROP party of 110Bn CRPF on New Bypass”.
In a separate incident, an underground hideout of LeT terrorists was busted by the joint team of security forces in the nursery area of the village Kawani Awantipora near river Jehlum bank,Awantipora.
According to a spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir police, “based on credible input regarding presence of terrorists of Lashkar- e- Taiba near Village Kawani in Awantipora a joint team of Police with 55 RR and 185 BN CRPF launched a search operation. During searches one large underground hideout of Lashkar- e- Taiba outfit was busted and destroyed. The security forces recovered one pistol, pistol magazines, 3 grenades , 2019 AK rifle rounds.